- From: Janina Sajka <janina@rednote.net>
- Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:13:33 -0400
- To: James Graham <jgraham@opera.com>
- Cc: public-html@w3.org
Hi, James: James Graham writes: > On 06/15/2011 03:54 PM, Janina Sajka wrote: > >Matthew Turvey writes: > >>longdesc is not implemented in Orca or VoiceOver so is currently > > > > > >Stop right there. Repeating untruths does not make them true. > > > > aobviously, you haven't looked at: > > > > html/wg/wiki/ChangeProposals/InstateLongdesc > > Sorry, could you be more clear about what exactly you mean here? I > guessed that you might mean [1], but that doesn't seem to mention > VoiceOver or Orca at all. > Nevertheless, Orca can access longdesc perfectly well via the Firefox plugin that is mentioned in the CP. In fact, I use it myself all the time. The original post I've taken such strong exception to went on to mention numerous UAs that ARE most explicitly referenced in the CP with detail about how they do support longdesc. > A little internet searching suggests that longdesc might well not be > supported in Orca [2], VoiceOver [3] or, indeed, NVDA [4], so I am > confused as to what the "untruths" you refer to are. Has the level > of support in those UAs changed recently? > Please understand these are assistive technologies, specifically they are screen readers. There is no particular reason why a screen reader need do anything in support of long desc. In the case of Orca, for instance, all the work of exposing the content is accomplished by the Firefox plugin. Orca simply allows the reading of that content once Firefox has displayed it. So, while some AT might wish to enhance the experience of longdesc, it does not follow that longdesc is inaccessible with that AT should it simply rely on the support available through the browser. > [1] http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/ChangeProposals/InstateLongdesc/Implementation Please note the extensive citations of AT and UA support at this URI. > [2] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/orca-list/2010-October/msg00217.html My friend Jason just wasn't aware he needed a plugin. Regretable--and it needs remedy, but that doesn't invalidate the functionality that is available. > [3] http://malform.no/testing/longdesc/ I believe this page indicates that iCab exposes longdesc on Macintosh. I blieve iCab does work with Voice Over--but I suppose we can verify that. Meanwhile, this page does a great job of showing how different AT plus UA combinations handle longdesc differently. This is as things should be. Let them compete on the better user experience. > [4] http://www.nvda-project.org/ticket/809 Please read down a bit further on this page. You'll note the NVDA people respond by recommending the aforementioned Firefox plugin for longdesc access. No, the original post was quite wrong, quite wrong. Janina -- Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.443.300.2200 sip:janina@asterisk.rednote.net Chair, Open Accessibility janina@a11y.org Linux Foundation http://a11y.org Chair, Protocols & Formats Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/wai/pf World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Received on Thursday, 16 June 2011 02:14:12 UTC